Actually, posting Studio Ghibli-style images of yourself is not the flex you think it is

In March last year, author Joanna Maciejewska presciently tweeted, “You know what the biggest problem with pushing all-things-AI is? Wrong direction. I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.” Everyone hates writing emails but ChatGPT has uniformised email etiquette to such an extent that every email now reads like corporate vomit. And even that is okay—after all, most emails are for formally getting across a point you can’t yell over the phone—but many new entrants to the workforce admit that they are unable to write an email without AI assistance. When it comes to schoolwork too, many studies question whether AI is helping students learn better or making them think less. All results point towards reduced critical thinking. And if our critical thinking skills deteriorate because of our over-reliance on AI, how will we ever identify AI as the culprit?

Beyond artistic, ethical and moral dilemmas, AI also poses grave environmental concerns. Studies have found that each time you use AI to generate an image, write an email or ask a chatbot a question, it comes at a cost to the planet. According to a Washington Post study conducted in collaboration with the University of California, Riverside, ChatGPT uses 519 millilitres—or just over one bottle—of water to write a 100-word email. And Ghibli-fying yourself or a single frame from your favourite movie? Apparently, that consumes as much energy as fully charging your smartphone. As soon as the OpenAI update was rolled out last night, AI filmmaker PJ Ace released a 1 minute 52 second trailer to a Ghibli version of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). Somewhere, a water body has disappeared entirely.

As I finish writing this, many Reddit users are complaining that the new OpenAI feature has already been rolled back and the notification they’re receiving reads: “OpenAI has restrictions on generating images in the style of specific artists, including Studio Ghibli. This is due to copyright and intellectual property concerns.” Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI tweeted the cause to be “images in ChatGPT are wayyyy (sic) more popular than we expected (and we had pretty high expectations). Rollout to our free tier is unfortunately going to be delayed for a while.” I’d like to believe it’s some Miyazaki magic.